Flesh and Silicon

Steelwing groaned in extreme pain, reality faded in and out. He lay on the floor, near death for half an hour until he saw 2 ponies in cloaks approach him.

"This him?" One of the shadowy agents asked the other.

"Yeah, lets get him out of sight before everypony gets suspicious," The other agent suggested, getting a field stretcher out of his saddlebag. The 2 agents hauled him on the stretcher and carried him, however Steelwing finally passed out.

Meanwhile several guards were searching the local area for Steelwing's body. Twilight approached the site on a carriage, she then approached the pony in charge.

"You found him yet," Twilight asked impatiently.

"No ma'am, we haven't found his body or that blade you asked for us to look for," The guard reported, Twilight then huffed in anger as she observed the area.

"This is terrible, not only did we lose the most wanted pony in Equestria, we also lost the legendary artefact I was sent here to retrieve," Twilight declared, as she kicked a stone in anger. "If you find anything, do not hesitate to summon me,"

"Yes ma'am". Twilight embarked the carriage and flew off to Canterlot castle.

The 2 agents carried Steelwing to an old bunker in the Everfree forest, one of the old robotic assembly bunkers that the Metaquines put in Equestria to help with the war effort. They took him to the medical bay as several arm-bots began to repair the wounds. Several metal prosthetic limbs came into the operating theatre as the wounds were finished being tended to. One of the arms snatched a metallic leg from the trolley and held it in place, suddenly another one fused it to Steelwing's skin. Steelwing screamed in pain, trying to get it to stop but nothing could as the restraints denied any movement.

Hours later, the surgery was complete. The medic bots retreated back to their storage bays and the restraints on the medical table loosened. The table began to tilt in an upright position. Steelwing finally regained consciousness and opened his eyes, his deep, orange, metal eyes. The turned, like they was scanning his surroundings. Several technicians plugged in several devices, monitoring everything that was going though his body. Steelwing's legs twitched, then his head, then his whole body.

"Mirror," Steelwing uttered. Several scientists began scribble on their clipboards.

"Mirror!" Steelwing demanded, holding his hoof out for a mirror. A nervous doctor handed him a mirror than back away quickly. Steelwing held the mirror in front of his face and looked in shock, as he saw that almost all of his face was converted into metal plates. He then pushed himself off the table and landed on his feet, he looked around the facility. Several machines scattered across the room, robot arms were perched up against the wall and tools were neatly arranged on a trolley. Steelwing's head dropped down as he walked slowly out of the medical bay and near the exit. An agent began to follow him.

It was only until that Steelwing was near the exit that the agent managed to stop him.

"Leave me, you do not know my struggles," Steelwing sobbed, as he carried on walking slowly.

"I know your struggles more than anypony here, Steelwing". The agent said. Steelwing stopped and looked at him.

"I recognise your voice somewhere, I don't know where though,"

"Trench fifty-four," The agent whispered.

"No, It can't be!" Steelwing gasped as the agent took off his hood. He had a dark grey mane with white highlights and a light grey skin. However he had a scar coming down on his left eye, which was similar to Steelwing's new eyes.

"Agent Shift, Platinum Shift," The agent introduced, as he took out his hoof to shake. Steelwing was in shock, he hadn't seen his friend since the incident back at the trench.

"Agent? What happened to Captain?" Steelwing asked suspiciously, forgiving the fact that Platinum ordered him to be restrained.

"Got court marshalled. Soon as you left, morale dropped like a tonne of bricks. When the attack came, I left. Trench fifty-four is gone Steelwing. I managed to hide your blade in the storage room before that crazy purple unicorn got it," Platinum explained, looking at the floor in regret. Steelwing put his cold,metal hoof on his shoulder.

"You did the right thing, that mare isn't getting my sword. Well now they're my wings," Steelwing indicated, looking at the purple trims on his metal wings. "Come on, lets get back in the bunker and plan our approach". Steelwing and Platinum retreated back into the dark bunker.

Platinum introduced him to every agent present in the bunker, the old bunker had been re-purposed as a operation centre. The transport tunnels extending to the edge of Equestria made this a favourable base. Steelwing entered the war room, where several digital maps of Equestria had been set up. Agents had posted several operations across Equestria, there was no going back now, Steelwing is now an agent.

"What do you think?" Platinum nudged Steelwing, "good to say we only had this place for 2 weeks". Steelwing kept looking around the bunker, observing the maps that the agents had made.

"It's good, we will take Canterlot faster with those tunnel networks," Steelwing plotted, putting his two hooves together and grinning.

2 Months had passed, several operations were successful as the Equestrian infrastructure began to give way. The castle had been put on high alert as the royals were tending to their duties inside of the castle. But one thing wasn't right, out of all the oddities Steelwing seen, this was the by far the most odd thing he had seen.

He was sleeping one night, stirring and rolling across his large bed. Muttering inaudible ramblings. He began to breath deeper and deeper until he finally woke up. He shouted one word, Luna.